El Niño has hit Mombasa. And man, is it intense! It has been raining practically non-stop for the last few days and it is supposed to keep raining for another week. NO GOOD! The intensity of this rain is like nothing I've ever seen. It rains so hard that you actually think the roof is going to fall in (and in some houses it has...mainly in the slums though). The roads turn into rivers and in Mikindani, where there is not really much of a paved road, everything is VERY muddy. I haven't been outside for a couple of hours, but one of my co-workers just stepped inside and said that down the road from work (where I pass to go home) the water was up to his mid-thigh. YIKES!! talk about flooding. It should be interesting to see how life goes on when the flooding gets worse. I'm a little nervous right now because I have the images we see in the media back home flashing through my head right now (rushing, waist-high, rivers rushing through the middle of town and destroying everything in its path). Not the most comforting of thoughts. I'm sure if things get really bad, FSD will re-locate us, but right now I'm just wondering how I'm going to get to and from work. I'm sure my sister knows some good routes.
Other than that, things are good. George and Jerusa (two members of the FSD site team) came to work yesterday and gave me and my supervisor, Salim, a $200 US seed grant to get started on my project. I'm getting really excited about my project, and we have already started planning the intervention. Right now I'm working on my grant proposal, which I will submit to FSD next week to try and get funding for the project (up to $1,000 US).
This weekend I was planning to walk through old town with my friend Amanda and then go to the beach. But maybe we'll have to postpone that... take a "rain check" (literally). There is also a Halloween party in Likoni on Saturday that we wanted to go to. Hopefully the rain will let up a little so we can do that.
Well, I best get back to work. Hope all is well back home. I miss everyone so much, but I'm definitely still enjoying myself :)
love to all,
Anna
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Yikes! Avoid those dirty flood waters - not good. Speaking of Halloween, Harrison got the flu halfway through his trick or treating but still managed to get a half bag of candy - atta boy. I got him his swine flu shot a week before but it takes up to two weeks for the anti bodies to develop. He has missed a week of school but is doing better.
ReplyDelete